What I've done practically all my life is to be a witness and to make graphic testimonies of the movements and struggles of the social classes in Mexico. This continues to be the most important motive I have to do photography. —Héctor García
Born on August 23, 1923 and raised in an impoverished district of Mexico City, Héctor García's interest in photography grew out of his social consciousness. García first began taking pictures in the 1930s to document protests by working-class people. A student at the Instituto de Artes y Ciencias Cinematográficas, he learned from Manuel Álvarez Bravo and Gabriel Figueroa. While there García made a conscious effort to inform others of the plight of the working class, organizing a newspaper using his photographs of student marches and related social events. García then spent time traveling around northern Mexico and the eastern United States. He returned to Mexico in 1946 and began formally studying filmmaking and documentary photography. Social criticism continued to characterize García’s images. After working as a photojournalist for Mexican and international publications, he became involved with filmmaking and has since earned prestigious awards for his various endeavors in cinematography. He won the prestigious Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes in 2002 in Mexico. García lives in Mexico City.
SOURCE J. Paul Getty Museum www.gettymuseum.edu, Other images: Other realities (Rice U, 1990). and Zonezero www.zonezero.com